Nueva School at Bay Meadows

Daylighting strategies were used to illuminate the basketball gym.Credit: Kyle Jeffers

A 133,000 gsf state-of-the-art campus to support rigorous academics and collaborative, experiential learning.

Nueva School is an anchor tenant for Bay Meadows Phase II, one of the the largest transit-oriented developments in the San Francisco Bay Area. The new campus -- a ten-minute walk from the train station and central commercial district -- sits on 2.75 acres of land that had formerly served as a horse-racing track. The campus is designed to serve 400 to 450 students, grades 9 through 12.

The state-of-the-art facility, which opened in 2014 to ninth and tenth graders, boasts a classroom building connected by a student-center wing to a gymnasium. Accommodated are four innovation labs, flexible learning spaces, classrooms, student lounges, administrative offices, dining and kitchen spaces, a writing and research center, a basketball gym, a rock-climbing wall, and outdoor courtyard spaces over parking. These new spaces were all designed to support and enhance Nueva's wish to inspire learning through discovery, experimentation, and collaboration.

The gymnasium building, which is flooded with natural light during the day, features exposed custom structural steel trusses supporting the roof and architecturally featured PV arrays. The gym space itself includes an acoustically isolated floor supported on the second story, with office space beneath.

Tipping worked closely with the design and construction teams to create and support architectural design features including custom sunshades, circular skylights, exposed steel trusses, canopies, and signage.

Designed to a LEED Platinum target, Nueva School at Bay Meadows is projected to use 67 percent less energy than a typical high school of comparable size. It has been the recipient of Green San Mateo County's Green Buidling Award.

The school was one of nine nationally to receive a 2015 AIA/CAE Education Facility Design Award; it received the Shirley Cooper Award, presented to the project that best meets the educational needs of its students.